The opportunity to personalize features in a mobile vehicle is ever increasing as the automobile is being transformed into a communications and entertainment platform as well as a transportation platform. Many new cars will be equipped with a telematics unit to provide wireless communication and location-based services. These services may be accessed through interfaces, such as voice-recognition computer applications, touch-screen computer displays, computer keyboards, or a series of buttons on the dashboard or console of a vehicle.
Currently, telematics service call centers establish a voice or data communication channel between a telematics unit and the call center to provide various types of location services, including dispatch of emergency help to a vehicle when air bags deploy, stolen vehicle tracking, traffic information, weather reports, road condition information, accident updates, street routing, and business finders.
If there is a technical problem within the telematics unit, the user contacts the call center and informs them of the problem. In order to fix the problem, technical personnel at the call center work with the user to determine the source of the problem. The user is required to place calls from the telematics unit for the technical personnel. The technical personnel may ask the user to pull off the road and to make one or more calls from the telematics unit as part of the troubleshooting process. The troubleshooting process may be an inconvenience to the user and the technical personnel may be limited to troubleshooting when the user is unavailable to assist them in the process. In many instances, a telematics unit is unable to initiate a three-way call.
It would be desirable to provide remote initiation of three-way calling at a telematics unit that overcomes the above disadvantages.